Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-08-05
THE COMING METAL. .
Substance Stron ger Than Iron and More
Valuable Than Gold,

utilized. The all-pervading iron and
steel, which is an improvement on its
parents, we know quite well. Copper
married to zinc gives us brass. Lead,
like politician, probably goes into
more pipe-laying than any of its metal
lie kin. Silver is picked out of the
mines in Lead Vile. hidden so carefully
in n drift that looks like yellow clay
that only when subjected TO the martyr
dom of fire does it deliver up its white
and molten soul. Gold, the yellow
god of all peoples and times, was the
cherished love of the earliest savage
and is of latest civilized life.
Even the different epochs of the his
.Ory of the human race have been
named after the metals. The earliest
and mythical age was the golden. The
first historic period the age of bronze;
this is truly the iron age of the world.
Iron nerves braid the continents, and
iron ships are the shuttles that weave
the wool of commerce. Without it
civilization would be at n standstill,
and the stone hammers and the flint
arrow-heads again be the needed i'm
plements and weapons of the race.
1t is the metallic missionary that
makes civilization practicable. Yet
it is more than probable that in
the near coming time iron will
be displaced This king and servant
that controls and yet serves will have
to abdicate to new, potent and more
capable ruler. The metal of the time
to be is ''aluminum. Iron, strong as
it is, is fatal in its weaknesses; moist
ure gnaws its surface with destructive
rust; the hammering that lengthens its
crystals into tibers and changes it from
cast to the toughness of wrought-if
the vibrations and pounding be con-
tinued, rs in the axles of railroad
wheels-jars it back to weak crystals
again. The sun stretches it and the
cold shrinks it. Excellent as iron is it
is very falliblc. and the broken rail and
swapping bridge girder makes it a
Moloch satisfied only with the sacrifice
of human life.
new metal, however, has quietly,
modestly and almost without recognl-
every bed of clay and in every block of
seemingly worthless and frable rocky
slate this ncw-found and wonderful
metal can be found. Like Bethlehem's
star, it proclaims the possibilities of
new civilization. Aluminium is very
plebeian in its affinities 1t has never
yet been found alone. Dirt and rock
rock in fan
are its holder and companion.
When Franklin was curious to learn
by experiment if the lightning was of
the same force rs that of the crude
electric machine he little dreamed that
the tiny wire twisted in the string of
his kite was to be the parent of the
telegraph and cable that over
the land and under the sea
would, like Shakspeare's Puck, in
forty minutes put n girdle round the
earth; that with n cobweb of wire, the
human voice would bridge space, our
streets be lighted with the little nerves
OF electricity, and our houses gladdened
with its globules of daylight.
So when some forgotten chemist
found in the dulledirt this new metal
he discovered a continent of possibll-
tiles whose length and breadth he
never knew. 1t was next to silver i'm
Ulster. Rust will not assail it or gases
attack. 1t does not poison like lead or
color like copper 1t is but third the
weight of iron and but q quarter rs
heavy as silver. 1t can be made
a 10 g.. 4. L
able when worn. 1t can be manufact-
ured into rails more durable than steel.
Steamships of this metal would lose
two-thirds their weight. Engines con-
structed of it would double their
strength and be lightened in proper
ton. Cars made of it would be light
us chalk, unburnable as brick and i'm
pcnctrable as diamond.
Aluminium is the most abundant ma
teral next to oxygen on the planet 1t
is possible in the future to dwell in
houses made of it; houses that the ele-
ments could not wear or fire DESTROY.
Combined with alloys its beauty is in
finity. Chemistry tells us it gives red
70 the ruby, green TO the emerald and
blue. to the sapphire. 1t is only within
half century that the existence of this
metal has been surmised; only within
thirty years has it been definitely
known. and only within few years
that it has been utilized. At first a shy
and hardly conquerable product of the
laboratory. recent and newer methods
have lowered the cost of its production
from S32 to Sl5 per pound. 1t only
needs some fortunate and skillful al
chemist to coax aluminium economical
ly from its humble associate. the COM
mon clay, TO revolutionize the world. -
4ALbdnU IN " Journal